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evidently fresh laid, were shown me on the 16th of May, and four others, but slightly sat upon, 

 on the 6th of June. I have also taken notes of some taken in other seasons during the latter 

 months." In the Humber district it is recorded by Mr. Cordeaux as a regular autumn, but only 

 an occasional spring visitant; and Mr. Hancock writes (B. of Northumb. & Durh. p. 119 (as 

 follows : — " The Ruff is a rare spring and autumn migrant. Before Prestwich Car was drained 

 this beautiful species was not by any means uncommon there in autumn, and occasionally 

 appeared in large numbers. I have noted five captures of it in that locality, all in summer 

 dress — namely, two males and three females; and I took, on the 3rd of June 1853, a nest with 

 the full complement of eggs. I am informed by Mr. C. M. Adamson that another nest occurred 

 in the same locality. 



" The adult winter plumage is rarely met with in the district. I have only a single indi- 

 vidual in this dress captured here ; and I am indebted to Mr. C. M. Adamson for it ; it was shot 

 at Hauxley in the winter of 187 . The young in the first plumage have been frequently killed 

 on the Newcastle Town Moor, and on the Northumberland coast. 



" Mr. Selby says in his catalogue that he had ' killed several of the young birds and an 

 adult in winter plumage, on the shore near Budle Bay and the slake or ooze interposed between 

 the mainland and Holy Island, about the end of September or beginning of October.' It has 

 been observed on Boldon Flats; and in May 1859 I saw at Gosforth Lake a pair of adult birds, 

 male and female ; the former had a white ruff. 



" The Red-legged Sandpiper (Tringa bewickii, Montagu), figured and described by Bewick, 

 is undoubtedly an adult Ruff without the collar of feathers. I have a male specimen, shot at 

 Prestwich Car on the 18th of April, without a trace of the ruff, and in other respects agreeing 

 with the figure and description of Bewick's Tringa, or Red-legged Sandpiper." 



With regard to its range in Scotland I may quote from Mr. Robert Gray (B. of W. of ScotL 

 p. 307) as follows, viz. : — " Except in very few instances, and these chiefly in Ayrshire and Ren- 

 frewshire, I have never met with the Ruff in the western counties. It appears to affect the east 

 coast principally, extending from Berwickshire to Orkney and Shetland. The trending of the 

 Solway Firth seems to check its progress northward on the west; or, more correctly speaking, it 

 leads it eastward from its line of flight. One or two occasionally cross and penetrate as far as 

 the Clyde ; but these are mere stragglers. The last one I examined — a plain and unobtrusive 

 female, shot near Bowling in October 1869 — was brought to Glasgow, as a great curiosity, by a 

 keeper who had long been accustomed to shore-shooting in the estuary, but had never seen one 

 before. Eastwards it occurs more frequently, and in greater numbers in Aberdeenshire than 

 elsewhere. Mr. Harvie-Brown has seen and shot various specimens on the Forth at Grange- 

 mouth. Writing in September he informs me that he had shot two specimens in a forenoon. 

 The occurrence of this remarkable bird in Aberdeenshire so frequently in autumn, after the 

 breeding-season is over, is a circumstance which need excite but little surprise when it is borne 

 in mind that large numbers breed in Scandinavia, and that the flocks there congregating for the 

 autumnal journey would naturally touch first of all on the outlying shoulder of that country as 

 the nearest land on their way southwards. On the other hand, the flocks appear both on the 

 eastern and western shores of England ; though, as we have seen, they shorten their route by 

 following the course of the rivers running into the Solway, and speeding eastwards into Berwick 



